This table – incomplete and very much under construction – sums up the normative connection between 3 democratic traditions and social news sites, as seen through an analytical framework developed by Peter Dahlgren.

Liberal-individualist democracy

Communitarian-republican democracy

Deliberative democracy

Structure

Ownership and business model: enabling openness

Accessibility to users

Enabling a meaningful diversity of sources

Structural openness – with means of editorial control

Ownership and business model: enabling openness

Accessibility to users

Fragmentation and centralization

Enabling a meaningful diversity of sources

Structural openness – with means of editorial control

Ownership and business model: enabling openness

Accessibility to users

Minimal fragmentation

Enabling a meaningful diversity of sources

Structural openness – with means of editorial control

Representation

Meaningful diversity of contents

Meaningful diversity of sources

Informational quality (reliability, (im)partiality)

Meaningful diversity of contents

Meaningful diversity of sources

Informational quality (reliability, (im)partiality)

Promoting / enabling activism and political participation

Meaningful diversity of contents

Meaningful diversity of sources

Informational quality (reliability, (im)partiality)

Expression of competing views and disagreement

Reflexivity

Interactivity

Interactivity (between citizens and social news sites as media organs)